SKIDAWAY MODERN On a marsh off Georgia's Skidaway River, overlooking a grassy estuary, is a remarkable house. The lower level resembles a loft, where light filters through high-ceilinged rooms, and an aluminum-framed storefront makes up most of the back. At night the house glows like a stage within the frame of its cantilevered terraces. — Published 2005.1019
	FIRE STATION IN TOULOUSE French architect Pierre Debeaux was known as an uncompromising artist, a rigorous geometer, and a passionate master builder. The Jacques Vion Firehouse in the city of Toulouse remains unquestionably his major work, the epitome of his late mature style. — Published 2005.0921
	POSTCARD FROM PORTO-NOVO Dear ArchitectureWeek, Porto-Novo, the capital of Benin in West Africa, is searching for its lost identity as development presents conflicts between historic preservation and a quest for modernism. The city's urban heritage includes vernacular and colonial, but the most interesting buildings, according to Gérard Tognimassou, a teacher from the Ecole du Patrimoine Africain, a school for the preservation of the African cultural heritage, are those that reveal "a great craftsmanship in the fusion between the Brazilian and the African styles." — Published 2005.0907
	PANTHEON INSIDE The Pantheon in Rome is an ideal case study for understanding classical space, orders, composition, light, and character. Despite having been compromised by additions and restorations over the years, the great domed temple remains today the most complete and best-preserved monumental interior to survive from Roman times. No better model will be found to illustrate the principles of classical interior architecture. — Published 2005.0831
	POSTCARD FROM SHIZUKUISHI Dear ArchitectureWeek, While traveling in Japan, I attended a Mochi Maki event in Shizukuishi, a small town of 20,000 in Iwate prefecture, northern Honshu. Mochi Maki is a rice-ball throwing event held during the construction of new buildings in Japan. An altar is set up within the building, and friends of the owners are invited to participate in a prayer ceremony conducted by a Shinto priest. During the service, the gods are invited to be present during the construction and occupancy of the building. — Published 2005.0810
	ALEXANDER CENTERING From his early Notes of the Synthesis of Form, to the bestselling A Pattern Language, to the recent four-volume The Nature of Order, over several decades Christopher Alexander has pushed intellectual boundaries with integrative approaches to design theory. We are pleased to present this excerpt, formatted according to the original and unedited at the author's request, in which Alexander describes a design process from the 1980s using the terms of his own theoretical framework. — Editor — Published 2005.0727
	ST. MARTINS ANEW Among all the great places of worship in London — St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Southwark Cathedral, Temple Church — one of the best known is St. Martin-in-the-Fields. It is situated on the edge of Trafalgar Square near the National Gallery of Art and Charing Cross Road. — Published 2005.0615
	POSTCARD FROM STUTTGART Dear ArchitectureWeek, When I first arrived at the Akademie Schloss Solitude near Stuttgart, Germany, I was struck by a flamboyant baroque and rococo construction. From a tree-lined avenue, one sees the cream-cake-like layering of arches and ornament of the Solitude Palace, commissioned by Herzog Karl Eugen between 1763 and 1767. Today, 30 artists and architects are in residence at the academy. — Published 2005.0525
	INNOVATION AT IRVINE For residents of Los Angeles, California, the county line to the south is often referred to as "the orange curtain." Stereotypes of Orange County depict a different world politically and architecturally: "red" versus "blue," suburban versus urban, predictable versus vivacious. The orange groves after which the county is named have all but disappeared, replaced by office parks and subdivisions of million-dollar houses. — Published 2005.0518
	POSTCARD FROM GLASGOW Dear ArchitectureWeek, St. Peters Seminary, built from 1958 to 1966, at Cardross College, Glasgow, Scotland, seems to resonate more deeply as a modern ruin than it ever would have as an operational building. Designed by Isi Metzstein of Gillespie Kidd & Coia, it now stands as heart-achingly modernist, stripped down and pure. From a distance its brown pebble-clad exterior looks like that of a baronial castle, stately and elusive. Palisade fencing, "Do not Enter" signs, and overgrown paths protect its lofty flanks. — Published 2005.0511

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